Hello boy and girls!
I promised you some post trip analysis and now that I found some time to breath I grab the chance to write a few lines cause I am not sure when it's gonna be the next one and I have lots to talk about. So, grab your coffee, whiskey or any of your favourite drinks and join me!
My trips have gather diverse reactions from other people over the years and though most as you may expect varied from excitement to envy, the cases of "why on a motorcycle?" were not that rare. My last trip which happened to be my longest one (stats on the title) caused even more whys.
Focusing on the "why?" of the whole thing reminds me of the time I interviewed Sherri Jo Wilkins who back then was in the middle of a 3 year round the world trip, solo on her motorcycle. Obviously, I never did anything close to that magnitude but I do recall the "just because I can" moto of hers as you can read in that tiny "interview" I managed some good 12 years ago (time flies!).
So I'm into extensive motorcycle travelling "just because I can"?
Not quite. I mean, obviously, I can, otherwise I wouldn't, but there's so many other things I also can and not do. What personally puts me into this is the combination of my love for two wheels and my favourite hobby which is observing the planet (at least the parts of our globe that I'm interested in).
I don't hunt any records, even personal ones, though on this one I did 3 countries in 1 day 4 times. I'm not into the "been there done that" Insta hysteria (no better proof of that than my own Insta). I don't collect credits for the global motorcycle travelling community (I don't even belong to any club). I don't feel obliged to do it in order to comply with the kind of person I am or feel that I have to prove/show off some short of image (well, OK, who admits that anyway 😂).
Frankly, the core of my motivation is the thrill of riding a loaded motorcycle while filling my eyes with (preferably) new views and smelling the villages and towns I pass by till I reach my next destination. There, my favourite hobby of observing goes on full scale focusing on the daily/casual side of things and not the fancy/touristic stuff. I'm more curious about what kind of people are the locals and how they normally behave rather than queuing for an attraction. Not that the latter are necessarily bad, usually it's quite the opposite, but even of I go for example at the leaning tower of Pisa you won't find any images of me "pushing" the tower cause I won't take any.
Due to this "perverted" curiosity of mine, during my trips over all these years I have been in some sort of parallel mission on collecting the best bits from all these places that combined would make an ideal living. Fascinating? Totally and this trip was diverse if nothing else experiencing the poor Serbian South all the way up to the expensive ultra developed Dutch South. But at the same time depressing considering that this habit has the side effect of highlighting all these things we do wrong just because we don't copy the right ones. Yep, in 2023 we still struggle to do that even though there's no secrets anymore.
"Can't you do that in a car?"
Sure, especially since I have one collecting dust while I travel abroad and requires a good amount of money for its annual registration + insurance. However, you can't smell the places when you're in a car, you get less chances to stop than on a bike, you queue more etc. Long story short:
In a car you watch the movie. On a bike you play in the movie.
And yes, of course it's also cheaper on a bike, especially with the current fuel prices. But that's not the most important for me and it's not always the case for everyone. There's bikes consuming the same amount of fuel as an average car (if not more but not mine) and bikers can spent a ridiculous amount of money on their gear (I'll cover that on another post).
Please feel free to add your whys, comments, or questions, I'll gladly answer on first chance. Cheers!
Agree with you, traveling on a bike is playing the movie, love this sentence
It has saved me so many times while trying to convey to others how it feels. Thanks for joining!
I have no why for you, because your why catched all my interest...
Why by god can we not all live at a good lifes level in times where we have all the knowledge avaiable?!
Picking out the parts we like and building our own shiny life puzzle out of them
❤️
The middle sentence of yours begs the question. Common sense is not that common after all...
That a great metaphor! Unfortunately, I'm not a motorcycle rider and having a family would be an additional problem, but I do like road trips! We are doing at least one big road trip per year and people often ask the same question like they asked you.. Why? Why not by plane? 😃
We like to take breaks in different places and see how things are going there.. It's not the same as with bike, but it's the best that we can do...
Cheers!
Yes Car... Because you got No Hive fest Bike 😅😘
I should get one!
😂
A great metaphor indeed! Wish I knew the guy who said it first to thank him🙂
Of course having a family changes your available options drastically. Still I'm glad you manage to do road trips. Planes are fast and all but they are so boring. Except the view from the top of course which can be stunning but not always counterweight the check in procedure, the cramped conditions where you might be unlucky enough to share with not the most caring passengers etc.
Thanks a lot for joining, will cover more aspects of the trip in next posts.
Always an experience, your motor biking long distance and cycling locally so always outdoors and nature.
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!WINEX
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Thanks for joining, always happy to share my harvest :)
Brilliant ride, very true about being in nature on a bike.
It has been great following some of your journey and I am glad @beeber introduced me to your blog. I think the world is out there and needs exploring.
Definitely @beeber was one of the gains of my trip as we crossed our hive paths at its early stages when I was about to enter Austria. Thank you for joining, you are welcome to add any aspects of my trip that you might want me to analyse in a later post. I have a list of things I want to talk about but I might be missing something that others might find important. Cheers!
I would be interested to know about some of your accomodation picks/costs and how long/why you decide to stay in one place (for beach, river, city etc..)
I was planning to write something about it so I might put it as priority for my part 2 to get you covered ASAP. Thanks.